kind in general, in all ages and countries, sought rational happiness in worshipping the one Great Supreme? Whence, then, is idolatry, and whence that neglect of the Father of Universal nature, or what is worse, that direct opposition to him? Morality, we grant, hath always been, as it yet continues to be, beauti the duties of life, and putting these together, | morality is natural theology; but have man we call the collection morality. As this collec tion consists of a great variety of duties, or actions proper to obtain happiness, we find it convenient to divide them into several classes; and as each class contributes its share towards the production of the general end, happiness, we consider the whole in the light of obligation; for every creature is obliged to seek its own hap-fully depicted in academical theses; professors piness, and it is natural to man to do so. light in a public gallery, for the inspection and entertainment of connoisseurs; but she was cold, and her admirers unanimated: the objects that fired their passions had not her beauty, but they were alive. In one word, obligation to virtue is eternal and immutable, but sense of t obligation is lost by sin. of each branch of literature have successively The condition of man in regard to the Su- contributed to colour and adorn the subject; preme Being, his creator, is that of absolute de- and yet, in real life, neither the law of nature pendence; and hence comes the first distribu- nor that of nations, nor that of private virtue, tion of the duties of life into a class called na- or public policy, hath been generally obeyed; tural theology: theology, because God is the ob- but, on the contrary, by crimes of all descripject of our contemplation; and natural theology, tions, "the whole earth hath been filled with viobecause the duties to be done in regard to God, lence;" Gen. vi. 11. 13. Alas! what is the life are such, and such only as are discoverable by of each individual but a succession of mistakes our observing and exercising our reason on the and sins? What the histories of families, naworks of nature. By considering ourselves, tions, and great monarchies, but narrations of we find a second class of ideas, which make up injustice and wo? Morality, lovely goddess, what is called moral philosophy, or more pro-was a painting of exquisite art, placed in proper perly moral theology: and in this we place the rules by which man conducts himself to be come virtuous, in order to become happy. Extending our views a little further, and taking in proper notions of the various situations in life, to which men are subject, and the various connexions which we necessarily have in the world, we perceive a set of general principles just and useful, and all necessary to the happiness of these situations and relations; and hence comes a third branch of morality, called general policy, or common prudence. The next exertion of thinking and reasoning regards nations, and to this belongs a large class of ideas, all tending to public prosperity and felicity; national policy is, therefore, a fourth branch of morality, and it includes all the actions necessary to govern a state, so as to produce civil order and social happiness. To these, by extending our thoughts yet further, we proceed to add the law of nature, and the law of nations; both which go to make up the general doctrine of manners, which we call morality. If man aim at happiness, if he consult reason by what means to acquire it, if he be naturally impelled to perform such actions as are most likely to obtain that end, he will perceive that the reason of each duty is the obligation of it. As far, then, as man is governed by reason, so far doth he approve of the bond or obligation of performing the duties of life. 3. MOTIVE. We will not enter here on that difficult question, the origin of evil. We will not attempt to wade across that boundless ocean of difficulties, so full of shipwrecks. Evil is in the world, and the permission of it is certainly consistent with the attributes of God. Our ina- e bility to account for it is another thing, and the fact is not affected by it. Experiment hath convinced us, that revelation, along with a thou sand other proofs of its divinity, brings the irrefragable evidence of motive to obedience; a heavenly present, and every way suited to the condition of man! It would be endless to enumerate the motives to obedience, which deck the scriptures as the stars adorn the sky: each hath been an object of considerable magnitude to persons in some ages and situations: but there is one of infinite magnificence, which eclipses all the rest, called the sun of righteousness, I mean Jesus Christ. In him the meekness of Moses, and the pa tience of Job, the rectitude of the ten com mandments, and the generosity of the gospel, are all united; and him we will now consider a moment in the light of motive to obedience. By considering the prophecies which preceded his advent, and by comparing his advent with those prophecies, we are impelled to allow the divinity of his mission. This is one motive, or one class of motives, to moral obedience. By observing the miracles which he wrought, i we are obliged to exclaim with Nicodemus, "No man can do what thou doest, except God be with him." This is a second class of motives. By attending to his doctrines, we obtain a third set of powerful and irresistible motives to obedience. His example affords a fourth, for his life is made up of a set of actions, all manifest Let us attend to sense of obligation. Should it appear on examination, and that it will appear on the slightest examination, is too evident, that the senses of the body irritate the passions of the heart, and that both conspiring together against the dominion of reason, become so powerful as to take the lead, reason will be perverted, the nature and fitness of things disordered, improprieties and calamities introduced, and, consequently, the great end, happiness, annihilated. In this case, the nature of things would remain what it was, obligation to duties would continue just the same, and there would be no change, except in the order of actions, and in the loss of that end, happi-ly just and proper, each by its beauty comness, which order would have produced. This speculation, if we advert to the real state of things, will become fact fully established in our judgment. True, the first branch of mending itself to every serious spectator. This moral excellence, this conformity to Jesus Christ, is the only authentic evidence of the truth of our faith, as the apostle Paul teach es us with the utmost clearness, in the thirteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians. Faith and practice, in the Christian religion, are inseparably connected; for as there can be no true morality without faith in the doctrines of Christ, so there can be no true faith without Christian morality: and it is for this reason chiefly, that we should be diligent to distinguish the pure doctrines of revelation from human explications, because a belief of the former, produces a holy conformity to the example of Christ; while an improper attachment to the latter, leaves us where zeal for the traditions of the fathers left the Jews. We have treated of this at large in the preface to the third volume, and it is needless to enlarge here. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. Ir was not my intention, when I translated the first four volumes of Mr. Saurin's sermons, to add any more:* but, willing to contribute my mite towards the pleasure and edification of such as having read the four desired a fifth, I took an opportunity, and added this fifth volume to a second edition of the four first. There is no alteration worth mentioning in the four, except that the editor thinking the fourth too thin, I have given him a dissertation on the supposed madness of David at the court of Achish, translated from the French of Mr. Dumont, which he has added to increase the size of that volume, following, however, his own ideas in this, and not mine. concerning the rites of Christianity, which I do not profess to understand. All he says of infant baptism appears to me erroneous, for I think infant baptism an innovation. When he speaks of the Lord's Supper and talks of a holy table, consecration, august symbols, and sublime mysteries of the sacrament, 1 confess, my approbation pauses, and I feel the exercise of my understanding suspended, or rather diverted from the preacher to what I suspect the sources of his mistakes. The Lord's Supper is a commemoration of the most important of all events to us, the death of Christ; but I know of no mystery in it, and the primitive church knew of none; mystery and transubstantiation rose together, and together should have expired. August symbols may seem bombast to us, but such epithets ought to pass with impunity among the gay and ever exuberant sons of France. Again, in regard to church discipline, our author sometimes addresses civil magistrates to suppress scandalous books of divinity, and exhorts them to protect the church, and to furnish it with sound and able pastors; but, when I translate such passages, I recollect Mr. Saurin was a Presbyterian, a friend to establishments with toleration however, and in his system of church discipline, the civil magistrate is to take order as some divines have sublimely expressed it. My ideas of the abso lute freedom of the press, and the independent right of every Christian society to elect its own officers, and to judge for itself in every Saurin's sermons, in the original, are twelve possible case of religion, oblige me in this suboctavo volumes, eleven of which are miscella-ject also to differ from our author. neous, and one contains a regular train of 20 sermons for Lent, and is the only set of sermons among the whole. The four English volumes are composed of a selection of sermons from the whole with a view to a kind of order, the first being intended to convey proper ideas of the true character of God, the second to establish revelation, and so on: but this volume is miscellaneous, and contains fourteen sermons on various subjects. For my part, almost all the sermons of our author are of equal value in my eye, and each seems to me to have a beauty peculiar to itself, and superior in its kind; but when I speak thus, I wish to be understood. Further, Mr. Saurin, in his addresses to ministers, speaks of them in a style much too high for my notions. I think all Christians are brethren, and that any man, who understands the Christian religion himself, may teach it to one other man, or to two other men, or to two hundred, or to two thousand, if they think proper to invite him to do so; and I suppose what they call ordination not necessary to the exercise of his abilities: much less do I think that there is a secret something, call it Holy Ghost, or what else you please, that passes from the hand of a clerical ordainer, to the whole essence of the ordained, conveying validity, power, indelible character, and so to speak, creation to his ministry. Mr. Saurin's colleagues are Levites holy to the Lord, ambassadors of the King of kings, administrators of the new covenant, who have written on their foreheads holiness to the Lord, and on their breasts the names of the children of Israel! In the writings of Moses all this is history: in the sermons of Mr. Saurin all this is oratory: in my creed all this is nonentity. It is not to be imagined, that a translator adopts all the sentiments of his author. To approve of a man's religious views in general is & reason sufficient to engage a person to translate, and it would be needless, if not arrogant, to enter a protest in a note against every word in which the author differed from the translator. In general, I think, Saurin is one of the first of modern preachers: and his sermons, the whole construction of them, worth It signifies so little to the world what such the attention of any teacher of Christianity, an obscure man as I believe and approve, that who wishes to excel in his way: but there are I never thought to remark any of these artimany articles taken separately in which my cles in translating and prefacing the four first ideas differ entirely from those of Mr. Saurin, volumes: but lest I should seem, while I am both in doctrine, rites, discipline, and other propagating truth, to countenance error, I circumstances. thought it necessary to make this remark. Indeed, I have always flattered myself for dif fering from Saurin; for I took it for probable evidence that I had the virtue to think for myself, even in the presence of the man in the world the most likely to seduce me. For example; our author speaks a language This preface was originally prefixed to the fifth voJame of these sermons; but as that is now incorporated with the fourth, it is inserted in this place.-Note of the last London Edition. Had I a human oracle in religion, perhaps Saurin | beautiful because in the service and livery of Notwithstanding these objections, I honour this man for his great abilities! much more for the holy use he made of them in teaching the Christian religion; and also for the seal, which it pleased God to set to his ministry; for he was, in the account of a great number of his brethren, a chosen vessel unto the Lord, filled with an excellent treasure of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and his ministry was attended with abundant success As I have been speaking of what I judge his defects, it is but fair to add a few words of what I account his excellencies. My exact notions of the Christian ministry are stated in the thirteenth sermon of this volume, entitled the different methods of preachers. Mr. Saurin, after the apostle Paul, divides Christian ministers into three classes. The first lay another foundation different from that which is laid. The second build on the right foundation, wood, hay, and stubble. The third build on the same foundation, gold, silver, and precious stones. I consider Mr. Saurin as one of the last class, and I think it would be very easy to exemplify from his own discourses the five excellencies, mentioned by him as descriptive of the men. First, there is in our author a wise choice of subjects, and no such thing as a sermon on a question of mere curiosity. There are in the twelve volumes one hundred and fortyfour sermons: but not one on a subject unimportant. I shall always esteem it a proof of a sound, prudent understanding in a teacher of religion, to make a proper choice of doctrine, text, arguments, and even images and style, adapted to the edification of his hearers. Where a man has lying before him a hundred subjects, ninety of which are indisputable, and the remaining ten extremely controverted and very obscure, what but a wayward genius can induce him nine times out of ten to choose the doubtful as tho subjects of his ministry? Saurin excels, too, in the moral turn of his discourses. They are all practical, and, set out from what point he will, you may be sure he will make his way to the heart in order to regulate the actions of life. Sometimes he attacks the body of sin, as in his sermon on the passions, and at other times he attacks a single part of this body, as in his sermon on the despair of Judas; one while he inculcates a particular virtue, as in the discourse on the repentance of the unchaste woman, another time piety, benevolence, practical religion in general: but in all he endeavours to diminish the dominion of sin, and to extend the empire of virtue. Again, another character of his discourses is what he calls solidity, and which he distinguishes from the fallacious glare of mere wit and ingenuity. Not that his sermons are void of invention and acuteness: but it is easy to see his design is not to display his own genius, but to elucidate his subject; and when invention is subservient to argument, and holds light to a subject, it appears in character, truth. Mere essays of genius are for schools and under-graduates: they ought never to appear in the Christian pulpit; for sensible people do not attend sermons to have men's persons in admiration, but to receive such instruction and animation as may serve their religious improvement. Further, our author, to use again his own language, excelled in "weighing in just balances truth against error, probability against proof, conjecture against demonstration, and despised the miserable sophisms of those who defended truth with the arms of error." We have a fine example of this in the eleventh sermon, on the deep things of God, and there fidelity and modesty are blended in a manner extremely pleasing. The doctrine of the divine decrees hath been very much agitated, and into two extremes, each under some plausible pretence, divines have gone. Some have not only made up their own minds on the subject, in which they were right, but they have gone so far as to exact a conformity of opinion from others, and have made such conformity the price of their friendship, and, so to speak, a ticket for admittance to the Lord's Supper, and church communion: in this they were wrong. Others struck with the glaring absurdity of the former, have gone to the opposite extreme, and thought it needless to form any sentiments at all on this, and no other subjects connected with it. Our author sets a fine example of a wise moderation. On the one hand, with a wisdom, that does him honour, he examines the subject, and with the fidelity of an upright soul openly declares in the face of the sun that he hath sentiments of his own, which are those of his own com munity, and he thinks those of the inspired writers. On the other hand, far from erecting himself, or even his synod, into a standard of orthodoxy, a tribunal to decide on the rights and privileges of other Christians, he opens his benevolent arms to admit them to communion, and, with a graceful modesty, to use his own language, puts his hand on his = mouth, in regard to many difficulties that belong to his own system. I think this sermon may serve for a model of treating this subject, and many others of the Christian religion. There is a certain point, to which conviction must go, because evidence goes before it to lead the way, and up to this point we believe because we understand: but beyond this we have no faith, because we have no understanding, and can have no conviction, because we have no evidence. This point differs in different men according to the different strength of their mental powers, and as there is no such thing as a standard soul, by which all other souls ought to be estimated, so there can be no such thing as a human test in a Christian church, by which the opinions of other Christians ought to be valued. There is one insu perable difficulty, which can never be sur mounted, in setting up human tests, that is, whose opinion shall the test be, yours or mine? and the only consistent church in the world on this article is the church of Rome. Were men as much inclined to unite, and to use gentle healing measures, as they are to divide, and to gratify an arbitrary censorious | of his displeasure. Woro this a common man, spirit, they would neither be so ridiculous as and not a sublime genius under the influence to pretend to have no fixed sentiments of their of the Holy Spirit, and so beyond advice, 1 own in religion, nor so unjust as to make their would presume to counsel him always to cap own opinions a standard for all other men. his medley of a sermon with a text from the There are in religion some great, principal, in- Lamentations of Jeremiah. fallible truths, and there are various fallible inferences derived by different Christians: in the first all agree, in the last all should agree to differ. I think this, I repeat it again, a chief excellence in our author. He has sentiments of his own, but he holds them in a liberal generous manner, no way injurious to the rights of other men. In the sermon above mentioned, Saurin makes a fifth class of mean superficial builders without elevation and penetration, and against these he sets such as soar aloft in the exercise of the ministry, and in this also he himself excels. His thoughts on some subjects are lofty, and his language sublime. He is not afraid of considering religion in union with our feelings, nor does he hesitate to address hope and fear, and other passions of our minds with those great truths of the gospel, which are intended to allure, awake, arouse, and excite us to action. Terribly sometimes does he treat of future punishment, and generally under the awful image made use of in holy Scriptures: delightfully at other times does he speak of eternal happiness in the enjoyment of God. On both these subjects, on the perfections of God, and on the exercise of piety, particularly in the closet, he stretches and soars, not out of sight, beyond truth and the reason of things, but so high only as to elevate and animate his hearers. By the most eract rules of a wise and well-directed eloquence most of his sermons are composed: at first cool and gentle like a morning in May, as they proceed glowing with a pleasant warmth, and toward the close not so much inflaming as settling and incorporating the fire of the subject with the spirits of his hearers, so as to produce the brisk circulation of every virtue of which the heart of man is capable, and all which spend their force in the performance of the duties of life. Do we then propose Saurin as a model for all preachers? By no means. But as we suppose there are diversities of gifts for the edification of the church, each excellent in its kind, so we suppose Saurin a model in his own class. There is in the writings of the apostle Paul one of the finest allegories in the world to illustrate this subject. The Christian church is considered under the image of a human body, and of this body God is considered as the Spirit or soul: and the most refined morality is drawn from the fact. "The eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee: nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. If one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it;" for it is the same God which worketh all diversities of gifts in all good men. It is highly probable, that what is affirmed of individuals may be true of collective bodies of men. One church may excel in literature, another in purity of doctrine, a third in simplicity of worship, a fourth in administration of ordinances, a fifth in sweetness of temper and disposition, and so on. It is not for us to investigate this subject now; let it suffice to observe that the French reformed church has excelled in a clear, convincing and animating way of composing and delivering Christian sermons. Never so warm as to forget reasoning, never so accurate as to omit energy, not always placid, not always rapid, never so moral as to be dry and insipid, never so evangelical and savoury as to spiritualize the Scriptures till the fat of a kidney is as good a body of divinity as the whole sermon of Jesus Christ on the mount. Different as my ideas of some subjects are from those of Mr. Saurin, yet I wish we had a Saurin in every parish: yea, so entirely would I go into the doctrine of the apostle's allegory just now mentioned, that I would encourage even a builder of "wood, hay and stubble," suppose he erected Our author always treats his hearers like his absurdities on the foundation laid in Scriprational creatures, and excels in laying a ture, to destroy the works of the devil in any ground of argument to convince the judgment place where those words are practised. In a before he offers to affect the passion; but what village made up of a stupid thing called a I admire most of all in him is his conscientious squire, a mercenary priest, a set of intoxicated attachment to the connected sense of Scripture. farmers, and a train of idle, profligate, and The inspired book is that precisely, which miserable poor, and where the barbarous ought to be explained in a Christian auditory, rhymes in their churchyard inform us that and above all, that part of it the New Testa- they are all either gone or going to heaven ment, and the connected sense is that, which (and we have too many such parishes in reonly deserves to be called the true and real mote parts of the kingdom,) would it not be sense of Scripture. By detached passages, as infinitely better for society if an honest enthuSaurin observes, any thing may be proved from siast could convert these people to piety and Scripture, even that there is no God; and I morality, though it were affected by spiritualquestion whether any one of our wretched cus-izing all the flanks and kidneys, and bullocks toms has so much contributed to produce and and red cows, mentioned in Scripture? Any cherish error as that of taking detached passa- thing of religion is better than debauchery and ges of Scripture for the whole doctrine of Scrip- blasphemy. ture on any particular subject. An adept in this art will cull one verse from Obadiah, another from Jude, a third from Leviticus, and a fourth from Solomon's Song, and compile a fundamental doctrine to bo received as the mind of God by all good Christians under pain Such a set of converts would grow in time up to majority, and when of age would look back on their first religious nourishment as men do on the amusements of their childhood: and among other reformations would cleanse public instruction from Jewish allegory, Pagan strength, we cannot succeed without thy Holy Spirit. Grant a double portion of this to us who preach thy word; grant after we have understood thine oracles, we may be first affected with the truths they contain, before we propose them to others, and may we announce them in a manner suitable to their excellence. But suffer us not to labour in vain; dispose our hearers to receive thine orders with submission, and to practise them with punctuality; so that all of us, being animated with one spirit, and aiming at one end, may sanctify our conduct, and live agreeable to the holiness of our calling. We pray for all these blessings in the name of thy well-beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Father, &c. philosophy, and the gaudy tinsel of the schools, conduct: but, O God! our duty surpasses our From a state of gross ignorance and vice up to a state of the highest perfection of Christian knowledge and virtue, lie infinite degrees of improvement one above another, in a scale of excellence up to "the first-born of every creature," the perfect teacher sent from God. In this scale our author occupies a high place in my eye, and if a reader choose to place him a few degrees lower, I shall not contend about that; for on my principles, if he contribute in any, even the least degree, to the cause of truth and virtue, he is a foreigner worth our acquaintance, and the Gallic in his appearance will not disgust a friend to the best interests of mankind. I say nothing of the translation: it does not become me. Let those who are able, do better. Envy of this kind I have none. The following is the prayer which Mr. Saurin The following is the approbation of the Walloon Church at Dort, employed by the Synod at Utrecht to examine the Sermons of Mr. Saurin. We have found nothing in all these sermons contrary to the doctrine received among us. We have remarked every where a manly eloquence, a close reasoning, an imagination lively and proper to establish the truths of our holy religion, and to explain substantially and elegantly the duties of morality. Accordingly, we believe they will effectually contribute to edify the church, and to render more and more respectable the memory of this worthy servant of God, whose death the examination of his works has given us a fresh occasion to lament. We attest this to the venerable Synod at Thou art a God merciful and Utrecht. In the same sentiments we send the gracious, slow to anger and abundant in good-present attestation to our most dear brother ness: thou hast no pleasure in the death of a sinner; but that he should repent and live; and thou hast given thy Son to the world, that whosoever believeth in him should have everlasting life. So many benefits, so many promises encourage our trembling consciences, and inspire us with the liberty we now take to approach the throne of thy mercy, and to implore the powerful aid of thy grace. We have always need of thine assistance: but now, O Lord! we feel a more than usual want. We are assembled in thy house to learn the doctrines of our salvation, and the rules of our Mr. Dumont, pastor and professor at Rotterdam, whom the late Mr. Saurin appointed by his will to take the charge of publishing such of his works as were fit for the press. Done at the Consistory at the Walloon Church at Dort, May 20th, 1731, and signed by order of all, by H. G. CERTON, Pastor. J. COMPERAT, Pastor. JOHN VAN BREDA, Deacon. |